Essay

Essay

I think this story is a dramatic irony. Readers all know that Mary Maloney killed her husband. But all characters except Mary do not know that Mary killed her husband at all. Dramatic irony means there are one or more characters who don't know, but readers know.

As I said, all readers can know that Mary killed him, but the police officers and detectives think someone who hates Mary's husband killed Patrick. The all characters except Mary do not know the murderer. That is why I think this story is a dramatic irony.

Also, I got some examples of dramatic irony. One example is when Mary Maloney went to the store after she killed her husband. She acted as if nothing happened. She kept saying brightly to the clerk in the grocery store. The reason why I think this is one example of dramatic irony, is because the readers know more about what happened to her and her husband in this story. The clerk thought Mary Maloney was happy to give her husband dinner, but we all know he was dead. This is one example of dramatic irony.

Another example is when the policemen ate the leg of lamb. The dramatic irony was that the leg of lamb was used as a weapon but the policemen were eating the evidence when the killer served it to them. Yet the policemen just kept eating assuming the leg of lamb could never be a weapon, while Mary Maloney was giggling in the other room. Readers all know the leg of lamb was used for weapon to kill Mr.Maloney, but the policemen never thought that the killer used the leg of lamb for weapon. This is why I pick it as the example of the dramatic irony.

The last example is when the detectives told Mary Maloney about the killer and the weapon. The detectives said “Her husband had been killed by a blow on the back of the head with a large piece of metal. The killer may be a man.” In this part, The policemen were assuming that the killer was a man, not a woman. And we know that the weapon was a leg of lamb, not the large piece of metal.

These are the examples and reasons why I think this story is a dramatic irony.